Alchemy is a great metaphor for life. Sometimes described as spiritual chemistry, Alchemy is the quest to turn base metals such as lead, into noble gold. The art and practice of alchemy was steeped in an arcane language full of contradictions and red herrings … which sometimes reminds me of modern life. In the West, alchemists’ work was primarily concerned with the creation of the legendary Philosopher’s Stone, with which he or she could allegedly not only accomplish the transmutation of minerals but could achieve physical immortality. Despite alchemy’s ultimate dismissal and denigration by serious science it’s interesting to note that the inventor of ‘the Calculus’ and one of the fathers of modern physics, Isaac Newton, believed in and wrote more on alchemy than on any other subject. Like alchemy, creativity isn’t scientific. It isn’t measurable. It’s about spirit. It’s about personal style and individual discovery. Like science, however, the most interesting creative endeavors seek out a form of universal truth. It’s my humble hope that the observations and photographs I share with here you resonate in some small way, transforming your day, if only for a moment, from something leaden into something luminous. — IAW 2

What’s with all the alchemy references and motifs?

Sometimes described as spiritual chemistry, Alchemy is the quest to turn base metals such as lead, into noble gold. The art and practice of alchemy was steeped in an arcane language full of contradictions and red herrings … which sometimes reminds me of modern life. In the West, alchemists’ work was primarily concerned with the creation of the legendary Philosopher’s Stone, with which he or she could allegedly not only accomplish the transmutation of minerals but could achieve physical immortality.

Despite alchemy’s ultimate dismissal and denigration by serious science it’s interesting to note that the inventor of ‘the Calculus’ and one of the fathers of modern physics, Isaac Newton, believed in and wrote more on alchemy than on any other subject.

Like alchemy, creativity isn’t scientific. It isn’t measurable. It’s about spirit. It’s about personal style and individual discovery. Like science, however, the most interesting creative endeavors seek out a form of universal truth.

It’s my humble hope that the observations and photographs I share with here you resonate in some small way, transforming your day, if only for a moment, from something leaden into something luminous.